We are undervaluing our precious natural resource
I’ve always liked the water in Christchurch. Go to Nelson, Dunedin, Wellington or Auckland and the water just tastes . . . different. I’m not trying to get into a pissing competition over who has the best water; I’m just suggesting that there’s something special about that water that gathers in those massive aquifers at the base of the Alps.
New Zealand doesn’t have much oil, coal, gas, diamonds or gold. If we were an island of Catan, I’m sure dairy would be our natural resource. But that’s only because the world still seems to be undervaluing water (just ask Coca Cola, who are investing like crazy in the stuff).
We’re not some Middle Eastern state that accidently got rich after discovering what was underneath the sand had a value so high that they could afford to buy up half of London.
But I suppose in New Zealand the stuff just falls out of the sky doesn’t it? It’s easy to be blase´ about a raw product that occurs so easily.
Now, sometime in our infinite wisdom, we gifted a couple of plots of dirt in Belfast the right to extract 9 billion litres of that beautiful clean water per year.
Someone’s bought that dirt. Do you know what they’re planning on doing with our water?
Bottling it up (no doubt in toxic plastic bottles) loading it onto smoke-belching cargo boats and shipping it across the ocean to China – where rich people will be able to feel revitalised by drinking the stuff or steaming their vaginas with it or whatever it is that rich people do with bottled water.
Nine billion litres. That’s a lot of water now isn’t it? You’d hope somebody had paid handsomely for that raw product that belongs to us, New Zealand.
Well no, they paid for the dirt but the water seems to come free with the deal. I’m surprised with deals like that to be had that people aren’t lining up to invest in Belfast real estate.
There’s a petition online, which I urge you to sign if this is an issue you care about.
For me, I think water will be the defining resource of the 21st century and once we get our heads around how valuable clean, untreated drinking water is, then we might be on the road to becoming this clean green brand we’ve been masquerading as for the past few decades.
Before the election, Labour, the Greens and NZ First were all vocal about dealing with exactly this issue. But nobody seems interested in tackling it at present.
I’m of the understanding that part of the issue with putting a price on water is the fact that the Treaty gives ownership of water to Maori and if the Government starts selling it then they’ll have to resolve a few more Treaty issues.
But didn’t we have a similar issue with the foreshore and seabed?
Water does have a value and if Maori do own it then let’s pay some money to the rightful owner and move forward.
I’m sure resolving our water issues is nothing that a bit of good faith on both sides couldn’t fix.
Because at the moment we have a situation where a resource is being criminally undervalued and nobody’s doing a thing about this resource being extracted and shipped off.
Who benefits? Not New Zealand. It’s time for the government to grow some balls and do something. Otherwise we may all be sitting around wondering how it is that the Chinese ended up with a couple of hundred billion litres of our water and all we ended up with a few blankets and some crappy muskets.